Take Back Alberta founder plans to fight $112K in fines levied by Elections Alberta

The founder of third-party advertiser Take Back Alberta says he plans to fight a slew of fines levied against his group by Elections Alberta, the government body responsible for administering provincial elections.

The group bills itself as a grassroots political movement that was involved in the ousting of former premier Jason Kenney.

The fines laid on Feb. 4 relate to bookkeeping and political advertising dollars.

The body that oversees provincial election spending and voting rules laid seven different fines totalling $112,400 against the group and its founder, David Parker.

The violations include circumventing election spending limits, failing to keep proper records, making false statements to the chief electoral officer, and accepting contributions from outside Alberta and Canada.

In addition, founder David Parker received three fines totalling $7,500.

Jonathan Heidebrecht, listed by elections Alberta as Take Back Alberta’s chief financial officer, was given a $500 fine.

Elections Alberta is not providing any further details about the fines it’s levied against Take Back Alberta but the group’s founder says he’s planning to fight them.

Parker admits some of the fines are legitimate, saying some paperwork wasn’t filed properly and there were errors made in the way funds were placed in their operating and political advertising bank accounts.

But he calls some of the other Elections Alberta fines a “witch hunt.”

He said Take Back Alberta did a lot of fundraising, event planning and spending leading up to the spring 2022 United Conservative Party AGM in Red Deer where Jason Kenney would have faced a leadership review.

When the in-person vote was cancelled and replaced with mail-in ballots. Parker said TBA had to cancel their plans and lay off staff.

“That had financial implications on Take Back Alberta because we were building up to April 9th and we were spending, by that point, about $120,000 just for salaries to people who were who were planning the meetings, putting them on all of that kind of thing,” Parker said, adding they planned barbecues and fundraising events, and bought shirts to sell.

“When he cancelled, obviously we had to let go those people. We weren’t able to raise any more funds.”

Regardless, Parker helped deliver party member votes that resulted in an anemic 51 per cent support for Kenney in a party leadership review in May 2022. Kenney saw the writing on the wall and quit.

After that, Parker said the organization was about $200,000 in debt. In the two years since, Parker said he worked to pay that off through loans and soliciting donations at TBA events.

One of the other fines is for accepting foreign donations.

“That sounds pretty nefarious and I could understand why people would be worried about that,” Parker said.

The TBA leader claimed the group received about $500 from five people that donated online and those funds were returned. He said a friend who lives in Alberta also donated $7,500, but did so from an American bank account.

“The total amount of funds that were received from outside of Alberta, not outside of Canada but outside of Alberta, was $8,000 out of $1.6 million,” he said.

Parker said he will be fighting the Elections Alberta fines, but at this point is unsure what that will look like.

“The problem is one of precedent, right? If holding meetings in town halls that are staffed by volunteers and passing a hat to pay for the hall and the gas that it took to get there is election advertising — then I see that as a huge infringement on everybody’s rights.”

Trending Now

Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt says these are some of the largest sets of fines ever issued by the election overseer.

“It’s not a surprise. David Parker basically said, ‘I don’t care. The rules don’t apply to me. The laws don’t apply to me. I can do whatever I want.’ And Elections Alberta said, ‘No, there’s actually rules around this.’”

Bratt believes if it goes to court, the fines will be upheld.

Global News reached out to Elections Alberta.

The government body says it’s prohibited from commenting publicly on investigations that it may – or may not- have conducted.

Bratt says it’s typical for Elections Alberta not to comment but it means exactly what they found is still unclear.

Alberta Justice said it’s focused on maintaining a fair and transparent electoral system.

“As part of that commitment, we’re reviewing the Elections Act, the Local Authorities Election Act, Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act and other relevant election-related legislation to make recommendations on improving the investigation and enforcement of election rules before and during election periods,’ a statement from the ministry said on Wednesday.

— With files from Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press